3.5 Stars A world where everyone hides behind a true mask and a city based on our own Venice. I found myself truly falling in love with the world Lauren Skidmore created within the pages of "What is Hidden". The world has the potential to be very vast and we only scratch the surface in this book as we follow Evie a young artisan who creates masks for others along with her father. Life is great spending time with her best friend Adien, and creating masks. Until one day everything changes when a criminal and thief named the Chameleon kills her father along with stealing his masks and branding her own face with his mark. Now Evie and Adien must quickly find who the Chameleon is and why he's doing this before he strikes again.. Evie was the first heroine I've come across in awhile who acted her age. She was strong and sassy, but could be scared, and a tad girly. She was at the stage of growing up and I loved h…

After reading this off and on again, I finally finished it and yet it just didn't grab me in the end sadly. I felt it was relying to much on the motif of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Who without stepping away and creating more for itself. Still a fun book just really didn't grab me like I wanted...

Being the time of year for a nice cozy spooky read. I was happy to have come across a nice Victorian ghost story and with the title alone being a complete spoiler I hoped for a nice read.

This book is pretty standard Gothic novel from a haunted house, scary kids, and a poor overworked underpaid governess stuck cleaning up the whole mess.

Proving once again that the work of a governess is a.) never done b.) sucked royally and c.) needs better health and life insurance

In Eliza Caine's case after the death of her father, she drops everything to rush out to next to nowhere to take a job she knows next to nothing about landing her with two scary kids, a haunted house and no one telling her nothing. Nice start to a new job.

This book is far from scary, leaning more to spooky with nothing keeping me up at night with the need of nightlight or two.

Everything fell into a somewhat predicable format which made the story fly …

I found myself surprised in how dark this was. Now I don't mind a dark read (unless it has clowns then all bets are off! I'm not reading it no way!!)) More in line with a dark suspense then a mystery, the setting of Chicago in the Glided Age was really brought the life for me and showed that all things are not truly gold. The world is changing and center around is The World's Fair which didn't truly hold a place of action within the story, but was more of the talk from the rich to the serving class. The serving class is where we find out heroine Rosalind who is in search of her missing sister as she poses as a maid in the house her sister worked at the Sloane House. There she meets the Sloanes' whom hide behind their riches but are a truly ugly family underneath. Rosalind finds an unlikely ally in the Sloanes' siblings friend Reid Armstrong. Reid is a heir to "new money" and is…

You just know when you've fallen hard for a book; maybe it's by that last page and that happy little sigh that comes from you or staying up late with bloodshot eyes because you couldn't put it down. That's pretty much what happen to me with Camille Elliot's Prelude for a Lord. Every single character, page, event hit just the right note for me, I couldn't wait to see what would happen and I also didn't want it to end.

Lady Alethea Sutherton is consider a great oddity with her dislike for society, being somewhat taller then fashion and most of all her love for playing the violin. Outcast from society because of these quirks and tossed from her home after the death of her father and brother with her cousin taking on the title. Alethea lives with her Aunt and waits and plans for the day she can gain her inheritance and leave to Italy where her music will be appreciated. Life isn't so easy howev…